At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, air-raid sirens sound for two minutes throughout Israel. Public transport (including virtually all highway vehicles) comes to a standstill for this period, and people stop and stand silent. During Yom HaShoah, much public entertainment and many public establishments in Israel are closed by law. Israeli television and radio channels transmit mourning songs and documentaries about the Holocaust, and no commercials. All flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.

Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students hold a memorial service in Auschwitz, in what became known as "The March of the Living", in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches. This event is endorsed and subsidized by the Israeli Ministry of Education, and is considered an important part of the academic studies - a culmination of several months of studies on World War II and the Holocaust.